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B1G Ramblings

frontofficesports.com

Big Ten Widens CFP Gap in Expanded 12-Team Era

Big Ten teams were half of final four participants in each of the last two years. Only the SEC also had multiple semifinalists.
frontofficesports.com frontofficesports.com


Beyond bragging rights, the on-field success has netted the Big Ten $82 million so far in performance-based revenue distribution payments. Second is the SEC with $64 million.

Third on the bonus payout list is the ACC, with $22 million won so far. However, the conference is letting Miami keep the entire $14 million it has earned, as part of the ACC’s “success initiative” that went into effect last year. Notre Dame made $20 million by reaching the CFP national championship game last season, which the school got to keep since it is independent.

The Big 12 has made $16 million total, the Mountain West and American conferences $8 million each, and the Sun Belt $4 million.

Despite the Big Ten’s overall advantage, the SEC has actually earned slightly more so far this postseason, $38 million compared to $36 million. The Big Ten is guaranteed another $6 million for the winner of the Indiana-Oregon semifinal reaching the national championship game, bumping the total to $42 million. If Ole Miss beats Miami, the SEC would come out on top with $44 million.

If Indiana or Oregon wins the national championship, it will be the Big Ten’s third consecutive CFP title (Michigan in 2023–24 and Ohio State in 2024–25), following four straight by the SEC before that.

This is the final season of performance-based CFP revenue distribution, with a new system beginning next season that will see the Big Ten and SEC earn roughly 29% of CFP revenue each, the ACC 17%, the Big 12 15%, and the Group of 6 conferences collectively 10%.
 
Rufus said:
frontofficesports.com

Big Ten Widens CFP Gap in Expanded 12-Team Era

Big Ten teams were half of final four participants in each of the last two years. Only the SEC also had multiple semifinalists.
frontofficesports.com frontofficesports.com


Beyond bragging rights, the on-field success has netted the Big Ten $82 million so far in performance-based revenue distribution payments. Second is the SEC with $64 million.

Third on the bonus payout list is the ACC, with $22 million won so far. However, the conference is letting Miami keep the entire $14 million it has earned, as part of the ACC’s “success initiative” that went into effect last year. Notre Dame made $20 million by reaching the CFP national championship game last season, which the school got to keep since it is independent.

The Big 12 has made $16 million total, the Mountain West and American conferences $8 million each, and the Sun Belt $4 million.

Despite the Big Ten’s overall advantage, the SEC has actually earned slightly more so far this postseason, $38 million compared to $36 million. The Big Ten is guaranteed another $6 million for the winner of the Indiana-Oregon semifinal reaching the national championship game, bumping the total to $42 million. If Ole Miss beats Miami, the SEC would come out on top with $44 million.

If Indiana or Oregon wins the national championship, it will be the Big Ten’s third consecutive CFP title (Michigan in 2023–24 and Ohio State in 2024–25), following four straight by the SEC before that.

This is the final season of performance-based CFP revenue distribution, with a new system beginning next season that will see the Big Ten and SEC earn roughly 29% of CFP revenue each, the ACC 17%, the Big 12 15%, and the Group of 6 conferences collectively 10%.
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This removes any incentive for lower tier Big 10 schools to invest in their programs. They get a big revenue share whether they go 12-0 or 0-12.
 
www.nytimes.com

SEC’s reality check, how NIL flattened the CFP and Indiana’s future in Mandel’s Mailbag

Did the transfer portal and NIL change the sport for the better? Can Texas Tech take a jump with Brendan Sorsby?
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

How long can Indiana stay good? Before I was an Indiana alum my family was big Michigan State fans because my sister in-law is a Sparty grad. But after Mark Dantonio, the program imploded. Is a similar fall to be expected from the Crimson and Cream? — Randell M.

Early returns are promising. Starting with the fact Indiana is spending the money to keep this thing going.

Within days of the Penn State job opening in October, IU made sure to lock in Curt Cignetti with a new contract worth $11.6 million annually, which at the time made him the third-highest coach in the sport behind only Kirby Smart and Ryan Day. Lane Kiffin’s LSU deal bumped him to fourth, but that might not last long. The Hoosiers reaching the semifinals touched off a unique clause in Cignetti’s contract that requires the school to renegotiate the deal and get him back into the top 3, or else his buyout to leave drops to $0. The number to beat is Day’s $12.6 million.

But IU’s investment extends beyond the head coach. The school also gave defensive coordinator Bryant Haines a raise from $2 million to $3 million, the same amount Penn State paid Jim Knowles last year, which makes him the highest-paid coordinator in the country. Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, who was earning $1.2 million previously, has also signed a new deal, though that number hasn’t been disclosed yet.

All told, Indiana, which even two years ago was paying coach Tom Allen closer to the bottom of the Big Ten than the top, is now spending more on its head coach and two coordinators than any school in the Big Ten besides Ohio State. Wild.

Meanwhile, Cignetti is already off to a hot start in the portal. He’s landed TCU’s Josh Hoover — The Athletic’s No. 4 QB in the portal — as Fernando Mendoza’s successor. Based on the current market, Hoover is likely getting $4 million to $5 million. Also: The Athletic’s No. 2 receiver, Michigan State’s Nick Marsh; Boston College running back Turbo Richard; and Kansas State edge rusher Tobi Osunsanmi.

This is what roster-building looks like for a new-age power.

None of this guarantees the Hoosiers will be back in national title contention next year. But Cignetti is a tremendous coach who’s being given all possible resources to compete at the highest level.
 
Rufus said:
www.nytimes.com

SEC’s reality check, how NIL flattened the CFP and Indiana’s future in Mandel’s Mailbag

Did the transfer portal and NIL change the sport for the better? Can Texas Tech take a jump with Brendan Sorsby?
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

How long can Indiana stay good? Before I was an Indiana alum my family was big Michigan State fans because my sister in-law is a Sparty grad. But after Mark Dantonio, the program imploded. Is a similar fall to be expected from the Crimson and Cream? — Randell M.

Early returns are promising. Starting with the fact Indiana is spending the money to keep this thing going.

Within days of the Penn State job opening in October, IU made sure to lock in Curt Cignetti with a new contract worth $11.6 million annually, which at the time made him the third-highest coach in the sport behind only Kirby Smart and Ryan Day. Lane Kiffin’s LSU deal bumped him to fourth, but that might not last long. The Hoosiers reaching the semifinals touched off a unique clause in Cignetti’s contract that requires the school to renegotiate the deal and get him back into the top 3, or else his buyout to leave drops to $0. The number to beat is Day’s $12.6 million.

But IU’s investment extends beyond the head coach. The school also gave defensive coordinator Bryant Haines a raise from $2 million to $3 million, the same amount Penn State paid Jim Knowles last year, which makes him the highest-paid coordinator in the country. Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, who was earning $1.2 million previously, has also signed a new deal, though that number hasn’t been disclosed yet.

All told, Indiana, which even two years ago was paying coach Tom Allen closer to the bottom of the Big Ten than the top, is now spending more on its head coach and two coordinators than any school in the Big Ten besides Ohio State. Wild.

Meanwhile, Cignetti is already off to a hot start in the portal. He’s landed TCU’s Josh Hoover — The Athletic’s No. 4 QB in the portal — as Fernando Mendoza’s successor. Based on the current market, Hoover is likely getting $4 million to $5 million. Also: The Athletic’s No. 2 receiver, Michigan State’s Nick Marsh; Boston College running back Turbo Richard; and Kansas State edge rusher Tobi Osunsanmi.

This is what roster-building looks like for a new-age power.

None of this guarantees the Hoosiers will be back in national title contention next year. But Cignetti is a tremendous coach who’s being given all possible resources to compete at the highest level.
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As a fellow Indiana alum I can't believe what the University and Cignetti have accomplished. My question:

How is this possible yet they can't put 5 decent hoop players on the court at the same time?
 
BigTenFan said:
As a fellow Indiana alum I can't believe what the University and Cignetti have accomplished. My question:

How is this possible yet they can't put 5 decent hoop players on the court at the same time?
Expand ...
It is amazing when you think about it. If Indiana just could have kept Indian POY in state they would be pretty good,.
 
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BigTenFan said:
As a fellow Indiana alum I can't believe what the University and Cignetti have accomplished. My question:

How is this possible yet they can't put 5 decent hoop players on the court at the same time?
Expand ...

My guess, and this apply to all B1G schools............

Locking down the resources needed for football first, because it pays the bills.

The second wave of spending is going to be basketball. The B1G was always kinda there as one of the best basketball conferences in most years outside of winning a national championship, so for many schools, it shouldn't take much to have elite basketball players.

We are already seeing progress with Women's Basketball in the B1G, - https://bigten.org/wbb/article/59177/

The Big Ten is the first conference ever to have nine teams in the AP Women's Basketball Poll in three different weeks in a single season. The December 2nd poll marked the first time since 1996 that any conference had nine ranked squads.

So we'll see how basketball plays out, but my best guess is that once all football investments have been made by the schools who traditionally didn't invest in football, basketball will be next. This would go for the SEC too. Most SEC schools already were fully invested in football, and so they already started investing in basketball, and you can see the results of that in how the SEC has improved in basketball the past couple years.
 
How Indiana broke college football


The Hoosiers’ football budget has increased each year since 2021, according to the Knight-Newhouse database, more than doubling from under $24 million in 2021 to over $61 million last year. That’s a rise from well below the Big Ten median to well above it in 2025. The $15.5 million negotiated buyout to fire coach Tom Allen in 2023 was considered too steep for a place like Indiana at the time. The fact that it wasn’t was a sign of the school growing its football commitment.

Now, personnel staff outside the program believe Indiana likely spent more than $20 million on its roster, partly due to transfer additions like Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza. (Indiana officials have kept the numbers close to the vest.) Given the high-profile transfer class arriving next season, that doesn’t seem to be changing.

“Indiana has blown people out of the water because they’ve committed to this thing,” the second agent said. “People have to be cautious about what jobs they take, because Indiana was a non-starter a few years ago.”

In years and decades past, the factors coaches considered when evaluating a job included facilities, staff salary pools, local talent and past program success. Now, the No. 1 thing they want to know is how much money they’ll have — for players, recruiting and everything else.

What is considered a “great job” in college football has evolved. LSU hired Kiffin in this cycle, but Penn State’s search took 54 days before landing on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell. As Ole Miss went on its run to the CFP semifinals without Kiffin, some in the industry questioned whether Kiffin made the right choice. Why leave a program that is already winning and gives you everything you want?

Cignetti determined in October after Penn State opened that he had what he needed at IU, signing a new contract that will make him a top-three highest-paid coach in college football. Then he beat Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon.

Indiana became a good job, and other places that used to be above Indiana might no longer be. Should coaches be evaluated differently as a result?

“These organizations have to demonstrate who they want to be,” the second agent said. “If you’ve got money like Indiana and you don’t win, maybe you picked the wrong guy. But if you’ve got other obstacles, Cignetti got the obstacles removed from him. I don’t think everybody’s going to have that.”
 
1000003420.jpg
 
Indiana is far from a revelation. Sucking for as long as they did despite having every advantage on planet earth was far more impressive that what they’re doing now.

All of those schools are born on third base these days and despite that, most of them are just not very good. Indiana was able to import James Madison’s roster and actually win in the Big Ten with it - from there, just splash that war chest around.

When your conference has twice the cash as the rest of the country, it’s not that hard. You already have 95% of the country beaten before you recruit the first player or play the first game - eventually, even Rutgers will have a year or two where they are contending.
 
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Rufus said:
Setting a New Standard: Big Ten Football
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They’re still the same scrub-ass schools - they’ve just been handed such an overwhelming advantage that one of them managed not to suck for a change.

Remarkable how hard that league fails with all those advantages. Give Boise or Tulane that kind of money and you would never touch them again.
 
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Fishy said:
They’re still the same scrub-ass schools - they’ve just been handed such an overwhelming advantage that one of them managed not to suck for a change.

Remarkable how hard that league fails with all those advantages. Give Boise or Tulane that kind of money and you would never touch them again.
Expand ...
Or better yet, give UConn that kind of money. Today’s UConn that is.
 
Fishy said:
Indiana is far from a revelation. Sucking for as long as they did despite having every advantage on planet earth was far more impressive that what they’re doing now.

All of those schools are born on third base these days and despite that, most of them are just not very good. Indiana was able to import James Madison’s roster and actually win in the Big Ten with it - from there, just splash that war chest around.

When your conference has twice the cash as the rest of the country, it’s not that hard. You already have 95% of the country beaten before you recruit the first player or play the first game - eventually, even Rutgers will have a year or two where they are contending.
Expand ...

Downvoted because Rutgers.
 
Fishy said:
They’re still the same scrub-ass schools - they’ve just been handed such an overwhelming advantage that one of them managed not to suck for a change.

Remarkable how hard that league fails with all those advantages. Give Boise or Tulane that kind of money and you would never touch them again.
Expand ...
Rarely have so many done so little with so much.
 
Rufus said:
My guess, and this apply to all B1G schools............

Locking down the resources needed for football first, because it pays the bills.

The second wave of spending is going to be basketball. The B1G was always kinda there as one of the best basketball conferences in most years outside of winning a national championship, so for many schools, it shouldn't take much to have elite basketball players.

We are already seeing progress with Women's Basketball in the B1G, - https://bigten.org/wbb/article/59177/

The Big Ten is the first conference ever to have nine teams in the AP Women's Basketball Poll in three different weeks in a single season. The December 2nd poll marked the first time since 1996 that any conference had nine ranked squads.

So we'll see how basketball plays out, but my best guess is that once all football investments have been made by the schools who traditionally didn't invest in football, basketball will be next. This would go for the SEC too. Most SEC schools already were fully invested in football, and so they already started investing in basketball, and you can see the results of that in how the SEC has improved in basketball the past couple years.
Expand ...
"Fully invested in football" implies that there is a saturation point where all meaningful investments have been made and money can be safely allocated elsewhere. I see no evidence that exists. Football programs can and will always spend everything they can get. Behind the scenes I'm sure there is a major struggle at Alabama because the football coaches and backers think they didn't spend enough on their anchor sport while investing in basketball.
 
flywareagle.com

SEC sent warning on the Big Ten amid Hoosiers' ascendance to CFP champions

The Indiana Hoosiers showed the power that's lying underneath the surface for many Big Ten programs, as the power balance in College Football continues to shift
flywareagle.com flywareagle.com

The Indianapolis Star's Zach Osterman believes what the Hoosiers just did, going 15-0 en route to the CFP title game, dominating the SEC's Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl and the B1G's Oregon Ducks in the Peach Bowl, is replicable across the Big Ten.

Osterman cited alumni bases from each school operating in big cities across America's biggest cities for why just about any Big Ten school could become the next Indiana at any point in the next few years.

"The Hoosiers’ rise under Curt Cignetti traces its origins to so many root causes it’s not worth rehashing them all here," Osterman prefaced before saying, "What’s not lost on the league office is the extent to which this can be replicable elsewhere. That with the right people in charge, adequate resources around them and a sustainable long-term strategy, this kind of success can be repeated across the Big Ten.

"In the NIL-plus-rev-share era, a conference composed of large state institutions with robust alumni bases grounded in lucrative industries across many if not most of America’s major cities has more than just one sleeping giant.

"The way IU fans took over the Rose and Peach bowls across the Hoosiers’ first two games in this year’s playoff should open the eyes of programs elsewhere in the league. This is what pure football activation can look like."
 
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What Indiana is doing may be replicable for most members of the B1G. Rutgers however would never be capable of winning at even an insignificant level, much less at the highest level in the most valuable sport.
 
After the fall sports season, the West Coast B1G schools are once again winning lots of conference championships. Travel impacts have thus far been minimal for performance outcomes.

Men's Cross Country - Oregon
Women's Cross Country - Oregon
Women's Soccer Regular Season - Washington; Tournament - Washington
Men's Soccer Regular Season - Maryland; Tournament - UCLA; National Champions - Washington
Field Hockey Regular Season - Northwestern; Tournament - Northwestern; National Champions - Northwestern
Women's Volleyball - Nebraska
Football - Indiana; CFP Playoffs - Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon; National Champions - Indiana
 
FfldCntyFan said:
What Indiana is doing may be replicable for most members of the B1G. Rutgers however would never be capable of winning at even an insignificant level, much less at the highest level in the most valuable sport.
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You'd have said the same thing about Indiana a year ago.
 
hank970 said:
You'd have said the same thing about Indiana a year ago.
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Indiana has multiple national titles in men's hoops and was at one time a very formidable men's soccer program.
 
hank970 said:
You'd have said the same thing about Indiana a year ago.
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Dude, are you for real? Indiana a year ago was 11-2, ranked as high as #5, and was year 1 into a new era with a hot coach in Cignetti who won 19 games his previous 2 years at JMU. Rutgers...let's see...looks it up was 5-7 this year, 7-6 the year before, and is the midst of a very middling rut with Schiano on his 2nd stint as HC for The State University of New Jersey. Only way for Rutgers to win is to buy a team (staff and players), but Rutty being Rutty, they'd muck that up too.
 
Rufus said:
After the fall sports season, the West Coast B1G schools are once again winning lots of conference championships. Travel impacts have thus far been minimal for performance outcomes.

Men's Cross Country - Oregon
Women's Cross Country - Oregon
Women's Soccer Regular Season - Washington; Tournament - Washington
Men's Soccer Regular Season - Maryland; Tournament - UCLA; National Champions - Washington
Field Hockey Regular Season - Northwestern; Tournament - Northwestern; National Champions - Northwestern
Women's Volleyball - Nebraska
Football - Indiana; CFP Playoffs - Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon; National Champions - Indiana
Expand ...

Combined those sports influence about 0.1% of what drives intercollegiate athletics.
 
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